(courtesy MGN Online)

WESTLAKE, Ohio - An untimely power outage during a northeast Ohio man's skin cancer surgery forced staff to cauterize his wound using only a surgical head lamp and cellphone lights to see.

Cleveland.com reports (http://bit.ly/2huadWR ) Joe Coughlin was being stitched up after a suspicious lesion was removed from his abdomen at a University Hospitals dermatology office in Westlake last Tuesday when the lights went out.

A First Energy spokesman says a tree branch fell on a nearby power line and caused a 43-minute outage.

The cautery device being used on Coughlin had a battery backup, but the surgical staff still couldn't see.

Cellphone lights were used to illuminate the area of Coughlin's incision and the procedure was successfully completed.

Coughlin says he trusts his doctor even more following her performance under such stress.___

Information from: cleveland.com, http://www.cleveland.com

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